Zhongshan Park - Looking for the Dedication Tree

May 12, 2013

Edith is leaving to go back to the Phillippines the next Friday, so we thought we needed to take one final outing to Zhongshan Park where President McKay dedicated China in1923.
We decided we would go after church.

In case you can't recognize me, I am the tall one in the picture between the two beautiful ladies.

We took our lunches to church with us so we wouldn't starve to death. A friend of Isabel's was visiting from another city in China, and we invited her to join us.

Zhongshan Park is one of many parks and lakes that surround the Forbidden City and were imperial playgrounds when the emperors ruled China.

A walk towards the Forbidden City.

Looking south across Tiananmen Square to Mao's Mausoleum.

The Great Hall of the People, which would be compared to our congress, is directly across the street.

Entrance into the park. 

Zhongshan Park is a quiet park and doesn't attract the mobs of tourists like some of the other places.

We took our time wandering through it and enjoying the surroundings.

We were told the Dedication Tree was by the moat and 11 columns from the west wall.  

We counted carefully and were sure we had located the tree.

But then we counted the columns again. That took us  to a square where a tree used to be, and we decided tree had died. We were told later that we were in the wrong spot, and the tree is still alive. I suppose we will need to go there again with somebody who knows where they are going. 

Even though we didn't find it, there was beauty all around us, and we had a lovely afternoon.